This data is used to shape policy and law in Texas. University of Houston Education professor Duncan Klusman said these high stakes make the tests controversial.
"How much is embedded in that one test given once a year within the system, and that really gets parents concerned," Klusman said.
STAAR results can determine how much autonomy a district has. HISD mom and area English teacher Laura Henry said in her experience, this pushes districts to teach to the test.
"What you miss is multiple types of writing. STAAR writing is evidence-based, but kids need to be doing all kinds of writing, and they also need to be doing rewriting," Henry said.
The Texas Education Agency said third through eighth grade results this year show math is up and reading is holding steady when you look across the state
13 Investigates took a look at Conroe, Cy-Fair, Fort Bend, Houston, and Katy ISD, which shows that in math, fewer students in third and seventh grade passed the math test this year compared to last year. The biggest dip was in seventh grade.
The TEA said the seventh-grade decrease is because more seventh graders than ever before are taking the eighth grade assessment. Math scores were generally up in sixth and eighth grade.
Results from our area we looked at show that all third and fourth graders struggled in reading this year, but all districts had growth in fifth, seventh, and eighth grades.
Henry said she encourages parents to put less stock in overall STAAR test results and to hone in on their individual child's results.
"When we open up the newspaper, we see, 'Yeah, our students did great. Oh, our students did terrible,' and that doesn't say anything, so parents do really need to try and find out what their student actually did," Henry said.
Eighth-grade social studies scores were released, which show growth over last year. Fifth through seventh grade will be released at the end of July.